Daniel Göttin Interviewed in IdeelArt

posted June 2, 2015

Born in 1959 in Basel, Switzerland, where he currently lives and works, Daniel Göttin’s works consist of site-specific installations and all-over drawings made out of industrial materials. The spaces occupied by the artworks are an integral part of the installation, playing a major role in how it is perceived by the spectator. He has had over 60 solo exhibitions and projects all over the world, and his work has been widely written about, commissioned, and collected. IdeelArt is proud to present this remarkable artist and discuss the experimental exhibition space Hebel_121 that he founded in Basel, as well as his experience exhibiting his works abroad, his artistic method, and his plans for the future.

Could you tell us a bit about your career?

I started off working as a professional technical draughtsman for an engineering company for a couple of years. Later on, I went to the art school here in Basel, which at the time was called sculpture class. After that, I travelled to Australia, for an artist residency in 1990, and since then I have been working as a visual artist and have made many projects and exhibitions in different countries around the world such as Australia, Germany, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, and England, as well as some projects and exhibitions in Japan, the United States, and Mexico. From quite early on, my work has been based on site-specific installation work, approaching an exhibition space, an institutional space, or a private space and creating a concept for a work that is usually temporary and sometimes permanent, based on a minimal background. This means that I work in an abstract or a concrete way, because the idea is to show the space itself in connection with my work to get an equally strong entity of the site and my work.